Did Spammers Steal the Campaign? Dirty Politics and Dirty Social Media

MUDSLINGING 2012 DIRTY POLITICS AND DIRTY SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL SPAMMERS • 49% OF POLITICAL COMMENTS ON SOCIAL WEB SITES COME FROM 1% OF USERS. NEARLY 5% OF FREQUENT POLITICAL POSTERS MENTIONING OBAMA OR ROMNEY ARE FROM AUTOMATED SPAM CAMPAIGNS. During the 2012 presidential campaign, more people than ever used social media to express their opinions and frustrations. Unfortunately, trolls and hackers have dialed up their efforts to dominate the conversation with their own agendas. INSULTING, ABUSIVE, AND PROFANE COMMENTS ON POLITICAL POSTS INCREASED BY UP TO 300% AFTER SIGNIFICANT WORLD OR CAMPAIGN-RELATED EVENTS. DOMINATING DEMAGOGUES ASTROTURFING Social spam kingpins manipulate the political dialogue with sneaky and nefarious techniques. RABID REPEATERS SOCK PUPPETS I@#%I@ "Astroturfing" is an attack that masquerades as a grassroots cause. By sending hundreds or thousands of posts, an astroturfer can trick readers into thinking there is broad support for an issue. "Rabid Repeaters" are broken records who post the same thing over and over. "Sock Puppets" are fake accounts that use pseudonyms to hide identities. A sock puppet pretends to be different people to anonymously promote an agenda or hide behind illicit or illegal content. During a 5-month period, over 220,000 political comments were almost verbatim repetitions of the same messages. In one example, a single user posted over 16,000 comments during a 90-day period. This campaign season, over 1,000 prolific political posters used two or more identities. STICKS&STONES, Name calling isn't new, and social spammers revel in using gibes and nicknames, most of which are far more insulting and profane than those shown here. NOBAMA PBO ROMNEY HOOD OBAMAON DEAR LEADER COMRADE OBAMA RMONEY IZ OBAMA LITE MITTENS OBUMMER KING OF BAIN MITT THE TWIT MAOBAMA MYTH ROMNEY OBOZO ROBME SEAMUS BRAK ROMNEYSHAMBLES BARRY SOETORO BARACK OBAMA MITT ROMNEY НОT TОРCS In social media conversations about the candidates, heated issues increased profanity to a fever pitch. 10 72% 6.5% 5.3% 4.5% AVERAGE- 3.5 FOREIGN POLICY & WAR IRAN ENERGY ECONOMY This increased to 10% after the September attacks on U.S. embassies. This increased to 12% after Israel's prime minister claimed that Iran is close to creating an atomic bomb. SOCIAL SPAMMERS ARE WORKING OVERTIME TO MAKE THIS ELECTION SEASON THE DIRTIEST IN HISTORY. ........................................................................................................... ............. Impermium protects brands and publishers from malicious and offensive SOURCE IMPERMIUM.COM content by identifying and eliminating fake users, inappropriate language, IMPERMIUM coordinated spam campalgns, and other forms social media abuse.